What does the coming season hold for MS? Does anyone think the Mercedes will be more competitive? Schumacher is another year older. What would Schumacher and Mercedes think is a good result for him? Personally, I think a few podiums and one race win they would see as progress. If Schumacher performs as he did last season I think he'll give it up. Either Mercedes will lose patience with him or he'll lose patience with them blaming a slow car. Should be interesting anyway.
I'm not sure how confident I am about Mercedes this season. I'm certain it will be Schumacher's best post-comeback year, but whether he will outperform Rosberg is another question altogether. What I do know is that 28-1 on Ross Brawn's team in a constructor's championship amounts to generous odds, as does 50-1 on either driver to win the WDC.
i think the mercedes cant compete with the development rate of the top three right now, so i think that thye wont be competing for any race wins next season. to be honest i think that he should give up his race seat next year even if he does manage to get a race win; theres too many young talented drivers that cant get a seat because some of the older guys wont give up on thier seats. schumacher had his time, i think he is past his prime and the team cant extract the best from him.
Mercedes probably will not compete with the front two next year, what I do know is however, Michael Schumacher will beat Nico Rosberg...mark my words. He has proved his race pace is as good as anybody, and is better than Rosberg most times, his race craft in extreme weather is still up to scratch and his determination is at the maximum. It is all down to how Michael and Mercedes can build a better car.
Manny didn't Nico outqualify Schumacher by an average of like 0.9s?? If Merc weren't in a little qualifying bubble of their own too slow for Ferrari too quick for the rest of the pack this would have hurt him much more, so he'd be even further behind Nico.
Got to disagree with you there EternalMSC, I think Rosberg will slaughter Schumacher. I would be happy just to seem him race, and lose if need be, with dignity. No cheating. No trying to run his opponents (including ex team mates) off the track. This is the chance for him to rescue his reputation as a cheat.
No points awarded in qualifying, if he still has the dedication to work through the field and finish ahead of his teammate who is much younger than he is, then why.. after developing a fast car, will he not be able to bring things back in the race?
What now? Well if its too be his last season try to go out on a relative high. He's never going to win over some people and his loyalist fans aren't really going to go off him so he only has to prove anything to himself. I don't think he'll hang around for ever if he gets a beating, but if he beats Rosberg by enough I can see him heading off to the golf course... again.
Manny, i admire your support for your favourite driver, by know I'd have expected you to give up on him, but 2 years out of 2 losing to Rosberg is not good enough. Even Mercedes tried to help salvage his career by bringing in Nico too early at India so Schumacher could get past. Yeah theres no points for qualifying, but when Mercedes are miles ahead of the rest of the midfield and cant compete with the top 3, their management has to look at everything in terms of comparing Nico and Micheal's performance. Schumacher did improve last year on the whole, but where he'd have 2 good races in a row, he'd spoil it at the next race by chopping his front wing off, or reverting to his old ways
I think the problem will come if Mercedes aren't in the performance gap they had this season. Whilst I accept that Schumacher may have been faster in race trim, if he was 0.9s behind his team-mate in a midfield team, that could mean the difference between 10th and 17th on the grid. I know he's a quick starter and could make a couple of places off the line, but fighting past 5 drivers just to be where your team-mate started is not ideal, and could take half of the race, and ruins your chances of finishing ahead of where the car deserves.
Opinion: Schumacher is only here now because - as a statistical 7 times world champion - he has such a draw on so many hopefuls and dreamers (and therefore is obviously attractive to sponsors), who are prepared to overlook his dastardly methodology. As a driver alone, he was washed up years ago.
If he isn't a driver, then what is he. A human driving a formula one car at 200mph at the same age where drivers sit around a commentary box criticizing others? I am not a dreamer, nor am I unrealistic. The thing is if Michael was destroying his car every race and struggling to gain the back end of the points then time should be called on his comeback. However, Michael has shown us two years in a row why he deserves a seat. An ability to defend a faster car for around 20 laps. An ability to maintain race pace and catch his teammate. An ability to drive for a win in adverse weather conditions/An ability to drive at the edge in adverse weather conditions. An ability to pull off overtakes where others dare not. An ability to carry his dedication to get the best out of the car until the end of the race. An ability to work with the team effectively to develop a car short-term and long-term.. eg. Race or Season. An ability not to get personal and work issues mixed up. An ability not to be suppressed by his many critics. His dastardly methodology can sometimes be mixed up with his scientific approach to his racing, an ability which is needed so badly at the Mercedes AMG Petronas team. People seem to forget Nico DNF'd only twice, deciding the 2011 points gap of only around 10 points, compared to last years 100. Schumacher's performance increased by 10x or Rosberg's performance decreased 10 times?
Yea That was a good response Eternal. Personally i want shummy to win a race this year and to be on the podium at least once .He nearly did it in Canada unfortunately that DRS zone screwed him over . It was a brilliant drive never the less. I just hope Mercedes are competitive this year instead of being in No mans Land .Even though im a hammy/Mclaren fan i will be keeping a close eye on mercedes progress they cant afford another year like the last two
Well said EternalMSC. For me the distant past is a red herring. All it proves is that Schumacher is talented driver, but then so are all of the non-Venezuelan men on the grid. The big picture is that Schumi wasn't good enough in 2010, and coming from that base he really stepped up in 2011. Furthermore, of the two Mercedes drivers it was MSC that came closer to challenging the big boys when given the opportunity. If he can beat Rosberg in 2012 then it will be a personal vindication of the decision to come back, but we can't really say what would count as success until we know what the car is capable of.
Definitely not. It's a sad reflection on the sport that even with the considerable money he brings, one of the greatest teams in F1 history looks likely to have similar equipment and inferior drivers to Caterham this year.
